10.9.2 Mavericks and can no longer connect to our SMB file share on the network.

So your solution is to buy Apple products exclusively?

I shall pass that thru to my workplace where we serve about 9000 students and staff.

Don't think they will react very enthusiastic to this plan though.

At home I use an old Xserve "Xeon" (Gainestown) from I believe early 2009 as a server. My Windows and Linux machines can connect perfectly to a SMB network shares. Mavericks machine (2013 MacBook Pro) craps out.

@PaakWaan

Just because you can connect to a Windows Server with 30 Mac Books does not proove anything. For example, I am able to conect to a Windows Server 2012 perfectly (even over slow WAN / VPN Tunnels), but I am not able to get a usable connection to a normal Windows 8.1 Share in my LAN.

With other Windows Computers, and even a Windows running in a VM on my Mac Book, I have no trouble to access the share of the Win 8.1.

It is obvious that the problem is not occuring in all constelations, thus it might be harder to track down. Yet there are so many people expiriencing issues with it, it can not be discussed away.

Because there is a difference between the SMB2 protocol which Apple use in Mavericks (with it's own flavoring I might add) as a replacement of it's proprietary SMBx (which was useless) and AFP (Appletalk Filing Protocol), and the SMB protocol.

It might be that on an all Mavericks based network things SEEM to be working right. For the rest of the World it doesn't.

I tried a Win Server adjustment this morning after reading the below article earlier this week. As hopeful as I was, our Macs still experience extremely long wait times to connect & dropped connections to shares...using SMB, CIFS, or any other of the proposed "tricks" noted above.

http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/05/16/network-performance-problems.aspx

I'm really hoping that Apple's silence on this will be all be fixed in the proposed upcoming OS update in June.

I'm new in mac world and my problem is this:

In my home, I have a domestic network with some shared folders between pc's (1 windows vista; 1 windows 8.1 pro; modem-router Technicolor TG784n v3).

With the new Macbook pro (OS X 10.9.2), I'm trying to use the same resources and communications between computers.

After some basics configurations, my mac recognizes the other two computers. However, when I try to access them sometimes that works, sometimes not. When it works, the process is very slow and, after some solicitations, the connection crash.

On Console, I identify some erros like this:

- kernel: smb2_rq_credit_decrement: Timed out waiting for credits 35

- kernel: smb2_smb_parse_change_notify: smb_rq_reply failed 60

- kernel: smb_iod_reconnect: Reconnected share XXXXX with server PC-W81

- kernel: smb_fid_get_kernel_fid: No smb2 fid found for fid 57550ef47cc64007

etc.

All this occurs when i try access a shared folders on windows pc's (not the reverse).

So, my problem isn't a server question but a simple access to shared folders! No problems between pc's but only between mac and pc! A obvious mac problem, no?

I'm curious to know which versions of Windows are being connected to. I played around with this a bit more today, connecting to shares on Windows Server 2012 R2, Server 2008 R2, and Server 2003 R2 using smb:// (NOT cifs://). The connections to the latter two seemed to work fine no mater what I tried, and the connection with the 2012 R2 share worked fine, as long as I connected to one of the other server shares FIRST, AND left that first share connected. If I disconnect from all shares, and connect to the 2012 R2 share "fresh," I get the browsing delays.

Another interesting observation, is that if I connect to a remote 2012 R2 share (over a WAN connection), it does not seem to have problems.

So my theory seems to go, that there is some problem with SMB2 protocol negotiation on a LAN, between OS X 10.9.3 and Windows SMB3 shares (Windows 8[.1] and Server 2012 [R2]). And when the Mac mounts a share on an SMB2 server first (Server 2008 R2), it then correctly negotiates an additional connection to an SMB3 server.

The newer Windows servers with SMB3 support backwards-compatibility with SMB2, but perhaps Apple's implementation of that downward negotiation is what's to blame.

At work (technical university) we have all kinds of Win Servers (Almost all Windows version, Linux, Mac, etc) and network sharing solutions.

We came to the same conclusion as you, although we also experienced some trouble with Mac's SMB2 implementation (they seem to have used their own flavoring of some sort) communicating with SMB3.

We believe it's not only the SMB2 implementation that is to blame, because other network protocols have issues to. Build in Mavericks screen sharing solution for instance, even between two computers with same OS and hardware.

Maybe they messed something up in the networking stack. We just don't have time to investigate deeply.

I have the same issue with my small home Lan network, been workign fine for years, upgraded to Mavericks now nothing will talk to each other, well it will if you wait 20-30 mins..jeez Apple please fix this , even the Apple TV is at a crawl!

Hello,

So far i have done quite a bit of work to find a fix to the SMB issues in OSX mavericks. By this time I have tried every single posted "solution" out there.

There are multiple issues with Mavericks SMB and Finder implementations. These issues stack on one another. Some issues may only be evident under the right circumstances. For example lots of small files and directories and very large SMB shares. This explains why some people report issues some don't. I belive that the people that report Maverics as working "wonderfully" simple do not have the scale to see an issue. Mavericks works great until you put it under stress. Here are my findings (general terms is late to type)

Issue 1) Listings of large directories in SMB shares take a long time. This is one issue that can be fixed if the directory listing is made of other subdirectories. It is simply a matter of removing all .DS_Store files and modifying the OSX clients to not write these files to network shares. (defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true) If the directory/subdirectory structure is well planned then some of of the below SMB issues can be alleviated.

Issue 2) Slow small file operations (list read write). OSX's SMB implementation does not perform well with small file operations. This causes slow listings of directories that are full of small files. The work around is to modify the file structure to avoid large directories of small files.

Issue 3) Finder likes to adquire all metadata from a directory before it renders the listing. No fix for this. it just adds to issue 2. However work around is to modify the file structure to avoid large directories of small files.

Issue 4) Slow reads and writes of "files" that are actually directories full of small files, for example keynote files and iPhoto libraries. I have not found a single solution for this but it comes down to poor small file performance in OSX's SMB

I have done my testings with both single Samba servers. and Clustered Samba servers. I am very confident on the Samba server side. I have also tried server side tweaks. It always comes down to the OSX client being at fault. Windows Linux clients always perform well. Working for a creative company means that a large majority of our user base is OSX and I am really eager for apple to address this issues.

I have to add that large file operations work great in Mavericks i ussually get full bandwidth 100MBps to 120MBps when reading and writing single large files.

Thanks kazop! Your work seems to bring some things to light. I am going to try the fix you mention in Issue 1 and will report back.

However, in the past week, I have moved some shares that my Macs access more frequently to a Mac Server with OS X 10.9.2 hoping to help with connectivity. It helped somewhat but now we are experiencing connection issues with it as well. I'm seeing these issues arriving when, as you said, Mavericks are "put under stress".

Finder crashes and must be relaunched...taking nearly 3-5 minutes to relaunch.

Windows stations purring along without a skip.

One more solution that has solved the issue for my workstation.

MacParc posted the following at MacWorld http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20131122083837447

It essentially creates a file nsbm.conf that has a single line, smb_neg=smb1_only

That tells SMB to ONLY negotiate SMB1 connections. What I found was happening is that regardless of how you may have initiated the session (smb:// or cifs://), there were processes in the background that had probably reached out prior. By forcing to SMB1 only, all the other issues have cleared on my workstation (10.9.4)

No issues with performance to-date and it works for both my corporate connections (Windows Servers) and personal (QNAP and others).

As it essentially is the creation of a config file and putting it on your workstation, it is a low impact/low risk fix for the solution until Apple can address in more detail.

Like others I am having issues. I cannot properly connect to my shared folder on Win 8.1 machine. Finder just hangs most of the time. I tried the fix mentioned above with forcing smb1, and that so far seems to be working OK in terms of connecting, but the transfer speed is essentially halved. I'm really surprised Apple is taking so long to fix this.

I'm curious if anyone here tested Yosemite beta to see if it has this issue still?

My testimony. I have very bad speeds with SMB2. Mavericks and worse than mountainlion.
SMB2 is poorly implemented in 10.9 It probably rewrite everything ... I will also reinstall Montain Lion because Apple will not do anything for us. As usual, they make fun of their customers ...

Hi everybody ! The problem seems still to persist. I have been waiting for, as I thought, long enough to overcome the initial issues with Mavericks but obviously it was not long enough. Since I upgraded to Mavericks the connection to shares is breaking continuously. I am about to test you suggestions, ie using cifs and IP addresses instead of smb and FCDN and hope something will work out for me. However, in my case, if the connection to the share fails and I reboot, then eventually everything settles down and normal work is possible. If at the end of the day the iMacs are brought down, the next morning the whole game starts over. If I have reached a stable network conditions and at later stage another iMac joins it, then this bring the whole network down. And at the end: Useless to say, but this is really a shame on Apple !!! Will never upgrade to Yosemite even if they would pay me for that.

I agree with PleasantSpectrum. We have a mixed network of Macs & PC's, with both a Windows 2012 Server & a Mac Server. We struggled all year with SMB issues while on Maverick. I trial tested Yosemite for a month then upgraded all Macs & Mac Server, which will require a $20 upgrade charge, and so far we have experienced much better network connectivity. It isn't as fast as I would like for it to be, however, at least we are now able to connect and stay connected. BTW...the first Yosemite update issued last week seemed to further improve our SMB issues.